Hey, hi, how ya doin?

After weeks of avoidance, India has finally made me sit down and write a little bit about myself. Words and I typically don’t get along so I apologize in advance for how painful this may be. But anyways, here we go.

My name is Emma Fivecoat and I am a proud co-founder of EF.IT Design. It’s been a long journey to get here and I guess I’m supposed to tell you a little bit about it. So here’s my life story (the quick and dirty version).

HOME

I was born in a beautifully weird town called Gainesville, Florida where my family history is rooted. My mom’s family has lived in Gainesville for like ever and my dad’s family has been there since he was a kid. We moved to New Port Richey (i.e. New Port Nowhere) Florida when I was 4 and I didn’t leave till I started college. It became our new home and everything that I knew and loved. It was the kind of town that no one really leaves (I’ve realized that’s a theme in Florida towns). It’s the town where I scraped my knees “jumping” homemade ramps on my bike, the town where I learned how to throw a softball, the town that gave me my first creative community and the town that I drove hours to reach every weekend during college. But out of all of these things, the one that pertains to you the most is how I started designing.

“YEARBOOK”

I was lucky enough to have an older sister who paved the way for me in high school. She was in this class called “yearbook”. Now, when I say yearbook I don’t mean that glorified scrapbook that our parents showed us growing up. When I say yearbook, I’m talking about a magazine styled 300+ page book that wins awards from Columbia University and is sent around the world. But as a freshman, I definitely didn’t know what yearbook really meant. So, I jumped in head first and learned quickly what I had gotten myself into. By my senior year I was named Editor-in-Chief for some reason and found myself leading a pack of crazy creative high schoolers. Yearbook showed me what working hard really looked like, what it meant it to be a leader and most of all that I was an okay designer.

COLLEGE

So, it was time to make a decision about college. I had it in my head that I MUST attend the University of Florida like many others in my family but I missed the application due date (not sure if my parents knew that, sorry mom and dad). As a result, I decided to spend my first two years of college at Santa Fe College in Gainesville thinking that I would eventually transfer to UF. Well two years later that’s not exactly what happened. I ended up taking a trip to Savannah, GA for a school tour. The next day I made my decision and convinced my parents to send me to the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). This decision and everything that came with it changed my life. I went to class every day in the most inspiring historic buildings and was surrounded by students that would rather shave their heads than look like anyone else. I had the privilege of learning from some of the most notable designers in the industry and even though they kicked my ass, I thank them for it every day.

INDIA, LIKE THE COUNTRY.

The most important piece of my SCAD story is when I met India. From the very beginning we knew that it was meant to be. Everything we did, we did it together. Even through our biggest struggles we always managed to come out stronger than we started. So when it came time to making a decision about our next career move, we knew that nothing could stop us. 4 cities and 3 years later here we are, in sunny St. Pete, FL making our dreams happen.

India wrote some words on how EF.IT came to be, you can read them here!